shutterstock shock and awe - When Samsung reveals the S9 at MWC, at least try to act surprised

When Samsung reveals the S9 at MWC, at least try to act surprised

Is there anything you don’t already know?

Apple is the obvious exception. A stupendous data dump on the eve of the iPhone launch left presenters with nothing new at all to announce.

Samsung’s big night next week revealing its Galaxy S9 at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona is now almost completely spoiled too with colours, pricing and availability joining the renders floating about the web. German site Winfuture has enough detail to complete the spec sheet.

A variable aperture shooter toggles between f/1.5 and f/2.4, the phone steals Sony’s trick of 960fps slowmo (for very, very short bursts, no doubt). Otherwise the S9’s body remains almost the same as its predecessor although the the idiotic placement of the fingerprint sensor has been rectified, renders suggest. Display size and resolution and battery capacity are unchanged from the S8.

The S9 purportedly ships to punters on 8 March.

HTC and LG, who have traditionally offered flagships at the giant expo, are sitting this one out. Nokia is expected to reveal something more ambitious than it has so far: a high-end phone with a pentalens camera. Nokia sold more phones than Sony and HTC last quarter.

Huawei also has a multi-lens camera rumoured for its mainstream P10 replacement, the P20, but may wait until a late-March event to reveal the device.

The oversaturated, punch-drunk market needs surprises – and manufacturers need profits. Any will do: Apple was estimated to have walked off with 51 per cent of all smartphone revenue in Q4, over half of the $120bn global market, according to Strategy Analytics. ®